Getting into hot water

Five reader stories and five different systems that illustrate there’s more than one way to get into hot water!

A tale of two solar hot water systems

Jen Gow has tried out both flat plate and evacuated tube solar hot water systems, and discusses the differences.

Don’t dismiss resistive element hot water

For Dave Southgate, converting to an all-electric house did not involve using a heat pump for hot water. Here’s what he did instead.

How to save money with a hot water heat pump

Jonathan Prendergast shares his quest to reduce his hot water bills by switching to a heat pump.

Troubleshooting issues with solar hot water

Ewan Regazzo’s electrical engineering background was put to good use troubleshooting a faulty solar hot water installation. It’s now working well, but there were several issues along the way.

Resistive versus gas

Linda and Mike Dahm were surprised when the energy costs for their dual occupancy homes, one with solar PV and an electric resistive hot water and one with gas hot water, worked out about the same. Here’s what happened.